Thermal insulation



Jan. l5, 1957 A, SCHWARTZ ET AL 2,777,786

THERMAL INSULATION Filed April 22, 1954 JNVENTORS.

Alexander Schwartz ByEmIe Fogelson mwn/W'JW www ATTORNEYS 2,777,786Patented Jan. 15, 1957 2,777,786 TWRMAL NSIEATION Alexander Schwartz andEmile Fogelson, New York, N. Y assignors to Leoharh Corporation, NewYork,

. Y., a corporation of New York Application April 22, 1954, Serial No.424,953

7 Claims. (Cl. 154-45) This invention relates to thermal insulation ofgeneral untility of the type suitable for use in buildings,refrigerators, vehicles, boxes and the like, and has for its object theprovision of an improved insulation of this character. Moreparticularly, the invention is concerned with insulation in the form ofthin sheets which may be supported in stretched positions by supportingor attaching members. The invention provides composite insulatingproducts or structures formed of a plurality of sheets of insulatingmaterial connected to supporting edge strips and arranged to beinstalled as an integral structure.

The composite insulation of the invention comprises two or more sheetsof insulating material such as metal foil, laminated metal foil andpaper, asbestos, plastic, or paper. The insulation may be formedentirely of one sulation of continuous sheets or webs of more or lessindefinite length and to connect the edge portions of the sheets tosupporting other when installed, and a means for attaching theinsulation in the place of use, such as to the framing structure of arefrigerator, box, building, or the like.

The sheets of insulating material are attached along their lengthwiseedges to the edge strips which are relatively stil, narrow strips ofsheet material, such as paper, which provides a means for attaching theinsulation to the inner opposite faces of adjacent framing structuressuch as the studs, rafters, or joists of buildings. Insulathe insulationin such manner that one sheet, called the front sheet, is held spacedfrom the other sheet, called the back sheet," an appreciable distancewhen the edge strips are attached to the inner faces of the adjacentframing structures. The insulation of the invention may comprise anydesired number of insulation sheets, and either two edge strips for eachsheet of insulation, in one embodiment of the invention, or two edgestrips for each sheet of insulation less two, in another embodiment ofthe invention.

One characteristic feature of the insulation is that the plurality ofinsulation sheets and the edge strip or strips along each edge, as thecase may be, are in superposed bonded engagement along their edgesforming attachment edges by means of which the insulation may be nailed,stapled, or otherwise attached lengthwise to the framing structures.While the edge strips are formed of a material which is stili withrespect to the insulation sheets and, in view of their narrowness, cansupport the insulation sheets in spaced relation, they are also suii-`ciently exible that the insulation can be arranged in compact at formand rolled into a roll for packaging.

When the insulation is installed between framing structures with theedges attached as with nails to the inner parallelism with the frames.At least one of the insulation sheets is attached to an edge strip onthe side facing the structure and is folded over the edge of the strip,

front sheet of insulation has relatively narrow edge attachment to theedge strips so that when the are held apart and parallel to each otherstrips being free.

the ones closest to the fra-ming structures,

sheets with their attached edge strips lying one over the other andbeing attached together along their edge portions. When this form ofinsulation is arranged in position for insulation with the edge stripsheld apart and parallel to each other, the edge portions provide a meansfor attachment to the inner opposite faces of the framing structures asby means of nails. The opposite longitudinal edges of the edge stripstact therewith.

The sheets of insulation are so proportioned in width with respect tothe distance between the framing structures and the resilient insulation1s installed the sheets These and other objects of the invention will bebetter understood after considering the following discussion taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1y is aperspective of insulation of the inventionillustrating onemanner of rolling the insulation into a form suitable for packaging;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of insulation of theinvention when attachedy to framing structures;

Fig. 3 is a. cross-sectional view of another embodiment of insulation ofthe invention attached to framing Vstructures, and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view illustrating vanotherembodiment of insulation of the invention.

The insulation illustrated in the drawings, and particularly that shownin Fig. l, comprises two or more sheets of insulating material. formedof any suitable sheet material, such as aluminum. foil, laminatedaluminumV foil and paper, plastic, asbestos, or paper, or of.combinations of these sheet materials. We prefer to form the insulationof at least one sheet of aluminum foil or laminated aluminum foil andpaper and at least one other sheet of suitable insulating material.

In all embodiments of our invention when we use aluminum foil, the foilshould be preferably dead soft aluminum varying, say, from 0.00025 to0.006 inch in thickness. When paper is use we prefer to use kraft paperof any suitable weight, say, from 18 pounds to 100 pounds base weightand preferably paper treated with lire, vermin and fungus retardingagents.

The insulation illustrated in Fig. 2 comprises a front sheet 1, anintermediate sheet 2, and a back sheet 3, each of which is of indefinitelength and a width suicient to form a composite insulation which canassume the position illustrated between the framing structures F, forexample, standard framing structures of a building which are spaced 16inches between centers. The edge strips 4, 5, 6, 7, S and 9 can beformed of any suitable relatively stiff sheet material that will supportthe insulation sheets in the position illustrated. The edge strips arealso of indeiinite length and each of these strips is attached as bymeans of an adhesive or any suitable stitching to its contacting side ofan insulation sheet. The attached sheets and -edge strips are arrangedin superposed relation and attached to each other in the position shown.lt will be noted that the strips 4 and 7 attached to the front sheet arethe narrowest and that the successively overlying edge strips areprogressively wider by a distance equal to or slightly greater than thedistance between the insulation sheets, the Widest edge strips being 6and 9 which are closest to the framing structures F.

One important feature of this insulation is that when the edge stripsare held apart and parallel to each other, the insulation may beinserted between the inner faces of the framing structures and theoverlying attached edge strips and insulation sheets provide relativelyfirm and strong edge portions 10 and 11 which are readily accessible fornailing the insulation to the framing structures as illustrated. lt willbe noted that although the insulation is only attached along these edgeportions 10 and 11 with the nails N that the edge strips, by reason oftheir resilient character, dimensions and attachment, urge theinsulation sheets in their taut spanning position and hold them in closeContact with the inner opposite faces of the framing structures.

The embodiment of insulation illustrated in Fig. 3 is generally similarto that of Fig. 2 comprising an inner sheet 1, an intermediate sheet 2,a hack sheet 3 and edge strips 15,16, 17 and 1S, it will be noted that,while there are three sheets of insulation, there are only two edgestrips along each edge thereof. The front sheet 1 is attached as with anadhesive along its entire area of contact surface to the sides of stripsand 17, while insulation sheet 2 is bent over the edges of edge strips15 and 17 and attached as with an adhesive to the opposite sides. Edgestrips 15 and 17 accordingly support both sheets 1 and 2 in the spacedspanning positions illustrated.

insulation sheet 3 is bent over the edges of edge strips 16 and 18 andattached along one side thereof as with an adhesive. The superposedlongitudinal edge portions of the insulation sheets and the edge stripsare attached together in the position illustrated, providing theattachment edge portions 20 and 21. rIhese edge portions provide a meansfor attaching the insulation to the framing structures F as with thenails N. The edge strips 15, lo and 17, 18 have the width relationnecessary to provide the spaced spanning position of the insulationsheets and they also hold these sheets in their taut spanning relationand in close contact with the framing structures.

Fig. 4 illustrates a further embodiment of the invention comprisinginsulation sheets 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29, each being attached along thelongitudinal edges to edge strips 50, 31', 3-2, 33 and 34, respectively.The sheets of insulation and the edge strips are arranged in thesuperposed position shown and attached to each other as with an adhesiveso as to provide edge portion 35 by meansr of which theV insulation maybe attached to a framing structure F as with nails N. Any suitablenumber of insulation sheets may be attached to edge strips as shown andthese may be constructed, either as in Fig. 4 or Fig. 3.

While any desired spacing may be provided between the adjacent sheets ofinsulation, it is advantageous to so proportion the widths of the edgestrips that the insulating sheets are held approximately 3A inch apartand this is particularly desirable When the adjacent sheets are formed,either entirely of aluminum foil or of laminated paper and aluminumfoil. The highly reflective and' very low emissive surface of aluminumfoil does not otter effective retardation to the transfer of radiantheat when in contact with other material and any individual surface hasa progressive diminution in eectiveness as the distance between thesheets approaches Zero.

Fig. l illustrates one eiective means of packaging the insulation of theinvention. Insulation of the type shown in Figs. 2, 3 or 4 can be sofolded that the insulation sheets are in close overlying position withthe edge strips folded into parallelism therewith. The edge strips arepreferably formed o such sheet material that the innermost convolutionsofthe roll may have a diameter of, say, 3 inches. The insulation ispreferably packaged in roll form and when removed from the package Vcanbe unrolled and cut in the length desired to cover the entire spacebetween the framing structures. The mechanic simply turns the superposedlongitudinal edges to a position with the edge strips spaced apart andparallel to each other and nails the attachment edges to the framingstructures as shown.

We claim:

l. An improved thermal insulation which comprises a plurality ofinsulating sheets at least one of which is aluminum foil, the sheetsbeing relatively narrow and of indeiinite length and superposed one overthe other, said sheets consisting of a front sheet, at least oneintermediate sheet, and a back sheet, each of said insulating sheetshaving a flanged edge portion on each of the edges thereof, a pluralityof relatively stili edge strips of dilerent widths, one of each of saidedge strips extending along and attached to each ofthe anged edgeportions of the insulating sheets, the narrowest edge stripsV beingattached directly to the front sheet, the widest edge strips beingattached directly to the back sheet, the edge strips of intermediatewidth being attached to an intermediate sheet and to the back sheet, thehanged edge portions of the insulating sheets and the edge strips beingconnected together and forming attachment edge portions, the insulatingsheets being of different widths, the back sheet being widest, theintermediate sheet being narrower and the iront sheet being thenarrowest, the attachment edge portions being arranged to lie close toframing structures, whereby the stit edge strips rcsiliently hold theirrespective attached insulating sheets taut; said insulation beingadaptable to being rolled into package form and when Y strips are heldapart and parallel to each other the insulating sheets are held spacedapart.

2. An improved insulation according to claim 1 in which the edge stripsprogressively increase in Width from the narrowest to the widestapproximately 3%; inch thereby supporting the insulating sheets at leastabout 3%; inch apart.

3. An improved insulation according to claim 1 in which at least two ofthe sheets comprise aluminum foil.

4. An improved insulation according to claim 1 in which the flanges ofthe several insulating strips extend forwardly and theforwardly-extending portions of the rear sheets lie opposite the angesof the front sheet.

5. An improved thermal insulation which comprises a plurality ofinsulating sheets at least one of which is side of an edge strip, theinsulating sheet next adjacent the front sheet overlying the front sheetand extending the edge strips to which the flanges having itsrespecsides and parallel to each other.

6. An improved insulation according to claim 5 in which at least two ofthe sheets are of aluminum foil held about 3A inch apart.

7. An improved insulation according to claim 5 in which another edgestrip approximately 3%; inch Wider than the aforementioned edge stripsare adhesively bonded over each of the longitudinal edges of the otherinsuladng sheet, and a third insulating sheet is placed in positionoverlying the other insulating sheet and the longitudinal edge portionsthereof are adhesively bonded to the lastmentioned edge strips.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

1. AN IMPROVED THERMAL INSOLATION WHICH COMPRISES A PLURALITY OF INSULATING SHEETS AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH IS ALUMINUM FOIL, THE SHEETS BEING RELATIVELY NARROW AND OF INDEFINITE LENGTH AND SUPERPOSED ONE OVER THE OTHER, SAID SHEETS CONSISTING OF A FRONT SHEET, AT LEAST ONE INTERMEDIATE SHEETS, AND A BACK SHEET, EACH OF SAID INSULATING SHEETS HAVING A FLANGED EDGE PORTION ON EACH OF THE EDGES THEREOF, A PLURALITY OF RELATIVELY STIFF EDGE STRIPS OF DIFFERENT WIDTHS, ONE OF EACH OF SAID EDGE STRIPS EXTENDING ALONG AND ATTACHED TO EACH OF THE FLANGED EDGE PORTIONS OF THE INSULATING SHEETS, THE NARROWEST EDGE STRIPS BEING ATTACHED DIRECTELY TO THE FRONT SHEET, THE WIDEST EDGE STRIPS BEING ATTACHED DIRECTLY TO THE BACK SHEET, THE EDGE STRIPS OF INTERMEDIATE WIDTH BEING ATTACHED TO AN INTERMEDIATE SHEET AND TO THE BACK SHEET, THE FLANGED EDGE PORTIONS OF THE INSULATING SHEETS AND THE EDGE STRIPS BEING CONENCTED TOGETHER AND FORMING ATTACHMENT EDGE PORTIONS, THE INSULATING SHEETS BEING OF DIFFERENT WIDTHS, THE BACK SHEET BEING WIDEST, THE INTERMEDIATE SHEET BEING NARROWER AND THE FRONT SHEET BEING THE NARROWEST, THE ATTACHMENT EDGE PORTIONS BEING ARRANGED TO LIE CLOSE TO FRAMING STRUCTURES, WHEREBY THE STIFF EDGE STRIPS RESILIENTLY HOLD THEIR RESPECTIVE ATTACED INSULATING SHEETS TAUT, SAID INSULATION BEING ADAPTABLE TO BEING ROLLED INTO PACKAGE FORM AND WHEN UNROLLED AND THE EDGE STRIPS ARE HELD APART AND PARALLEL TO EACH OTHER THE INSULATING SHEETS ARE HELD SPACED APART. 